Bradley Birth Class Reunion & Armenian Fest

Going to our Bradley reunion was a sort of surreal experience for me, because I remember seeing photos in my baby book of my parents going to their Lamaze reunion. And it always struck me because one of those babies went on to become Megan Mooney, a girl I went to school with for elementary and middle school.

So their was a weird sense of looking forward and backward in time as we headed off to our Bradley reunion. We'd agreed to meet central in the city, so we were meeting at the Lincoln Park Conservatory at the Lincoln Park Zoo. We parked early so we had time to take in the plants at the Conservatory before meeting up with everyone. Afterwards our plan was to stroll around the zoo for a while before heading up to Wisconsin for the Armenian picnic the next day.

In his little animals onesie for his first trip to the zoo. And you can tell how excited he is. (Notice the conservatory in the background)

A kiss from Daddy.

With our Bradley instructor, Julie.

Our Bradley friend David, with his daughter. She was born (full term) just a week before Liam.

His first little trip to the zoo, sleeping in front of the zebras.

Armenian Picnic

Richard Hagopian lived down the street from me when I was little, and he was my first husband (married with a candy ring at the ripe old age of six).

Richard, Erin, Terry & Liam in front of the Armenian flag that always hangs behind my family (Chardukian) table.

Liam wearing his Armenian-colored "Grandpa is my Hero" onesie in honor of Grandpa Jeff for Armenian picnic.

The Chicago Architecture Tour

I've wanted to do the Chicago Architecture Tour since I was in college. It just seems like one of those things that even the locals do and rave about. So one weekend when my mom and dad were in town, we all drove downtown to take the river cruise.

The first big shock was that while we were standing in line (with Liam napping in the moby wrap strapped to my chest) one of the workers comes up to me and explains that we actually have to pay for a full priced ticket for Liam or they won't let us on the boat. She says it in a really nice, "please don't shoot the messenger" tone. If she wasnt so nice (and so not at fault for the policy) I would have fallen over incredulous. It was just so patently ridiculous. But she went with me to the ticket window, and advocated on our behalf, saying that because I was wearing him and he wasnt taking up space, they should comp the ticket. Eventually the ticket window guy agreed, but boy would I have been pissed to put out all that cash for a not-yet-6-month-old kid to go on the tour! They really ought to warn people about that on their webpage. It would have been cheaper and easier for us to just hire a babysitter for that time.

The tour wound up being fun and interesting, and it was a good time spent with Grandma and Grandpa Schultz. I was glad to check another Chicago classic off my "to-do" list.

It was a sunny day, so we experiment with some sunglasses (he is confused by them).

Grandma and Grandpa Schultz were there too!

We got to hear more about the history and architectural theory of some of Chicago's landmark buildings.

Liam was "supposed" to nap while I wore him in the moby wrap, but instead he got all interested in looking around and wouldn't sleep, but being tired and hot made him crabby, so I took him downstairs where it was cooler.

Totally pooped out.

And his first solid food is...

...PEAS!

Okay, so it wasn't a big vote getter in the polls, but Terry and I both felt really drawn to the idea of bright green mushy peas. There is one school of thought that recommends introducing your baby to vegetables before fruits, because otherwise they will so prefer the sweetness of fruits that they won't take the veggies. (The other school of thought says that breastmilk is naturally sweet, and high fructose corn syrup is the #1 ingredient in most babyfood formulas, so kids already prefer sweets from birth). Regardless, we figured at least it couldn't hurt to do veggies first.

And there is something super delightful about the joyful spring green of newly steamed peas that just seems right when smeared all over a baby's face.

It has been really fun, and shockingly easy, to prepare organic babyfood for Liam from scratch at home. Somehow I was under the mistaken impression that making babyfood was something like the culinary equivalent of souffle paired with the scientific rigor of curing cancer.

Turns out not. Turns out all you need is a $1.50 for a one pound bag of frozen organic peas at Whole Foods, a hand held wand blender ($12-15), something to blend in, a pot or steamer or microwave, and water or formula or breastmilk to thin it out to the right consistency. The whole process takes me about 5-9 minutes, and I get food for him for the whole week. Three days worth of it goes into the fridge and the rest get frozen in an ice-cube tray that provides convenient portion sizes. Once frozen, I transfer the food cubes to a little tupperware that I mark with the date and what it is. Liam has a big appetite and really likes food, so he takes 2 cubes (which works out to about 2 Tbsp or close to 1/4 cup) each day. So my $1.50 bag of peas wound up producing about 8 full servings of babyfood. And it was organic. Did I mention it was only $1.50? And that the teeeny tiny jars of organic baby food go for a dollar per jar?

I have seriously no idea why everyone doesn't do this. I will be forever thankful to Ian's sister Meghan Fraser for opening my eyes to making your own, and to Ian and Sian who got us a little book that gives all the details of how to do it, and even recipes for what to try out when.

The biggest vote-getter by far was sweet potato with 7 votes. After that carrot (3) and two brave souls bucked the orange veg trend and voted for the darling green (and easily digestible) zucchini. After I put up the poll, I discovered that according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, you shouldn't make babyfood from carrots at home because certain cultiation conditions can lead to excess nitrates that produce anemia in babies. Who knew? So sadly no carrots, or I would have been whipping up some peas and carrots in a heartbeat.

After four days of peas we moved on to zucchini and then onto everyone's favorite: sweet potato! Liam likes the peas just fine, he doesn't seem to love the zucchini, and he adores the sweet potato (as everyone predicted). I believe we have a video clip of him crooning his way through the entire feeding, and leaning forward for more so fast I could barely get the spoon there fast enough to keep him happy. Unfortunately between two conferences for me and the upcoming move, I suspect we may be in Nashville before I can download, format and upload the video footage.

But until then, a study in peas...

Wow, that's surprising. This is not rice cereal.

Hmm, I'm gonna have to think about that one.

Ok, I love it!

Liam Learns to Eat Rice Cereal

Our pediatrician, Dr. Andy, told us to check it with him by phone when Liam turned five months old so we could talk about how he was doing with sleeping (not well at the time) and about possibly starting some solid foods. Dr. Andy gave us the go-ahead to start him on rice cereal very thinned with formula. We gave him a little bit at first to help him get used to the taste and texture and process of eating with a spoon. He looked horribly affronted at first, but eventually came around to the idea. Which was a good thing, because doing well with the rice cereal was the condition for moving onto more exciting foods.

Rice cereal, at first:

So let me get this straight, the rice cereal is meant to improve my complexion, right? Like an oatmeal facemask or something?

So this inconvenient metal thing goes in my mouth and then what? where's the tasty milk? This is a strange new system you people have dreamed up.

But eventually:

Okay, I get it. You want most of this stuff inside my mouth.

I like holding the spoon myself. Rice cereal makes me happy (and sleep through the night!)

Yeah, I'm awesome. I got this spoon thing covered.

We're REALLY rolling (and it makes mommy nervous)

Friday Grandma Schultz came down. We all took Liam to the newly opened Five Guys burgers in Rogers Park. Then after Grammy left, my childhood friend Jenni came to stay with us and meet Liam for the first time. He ate rice cereal, during which he flirted with Jenni the whole time. This mostly consisted of broad grins with a mouth full of food. No manners that kid. I could already hear boyish jokes about "you like seafood? see food."

After he was fast asleep, we watched "Phoebe in Neverland" (which was amazing, you can stream it on netflix). I went in to check on Liam and this is what I found...

Liam, proving he's finally mastered rolling from back to tummy.

And when I put him in his crib for a nap the next morning, the first thing he did was flip right over.

Self proscribed tummy time.

He will now do it pretty regularly. Yesterday at Ravinia he rolled over on the picnic blanket to get a better look at Sian, Ian, Dustin and Becky.

But the big problem is that he does it all the time at night. It makes me nervous as heck after reading an article on how "unaccustomed tummy sleep" puts a kid at nine times greater risk of SIDS. And while the risk drops off around 6 months, it still happens up to one year. And often as he sleeps on his tummy his face is pointed towards his mattress, which makes me worry he won't get enough air (one theory on what causes SIDS). So last night, for example, I caught him tummy sleeping four times and rolled him gently back onto his back.

Today when the peds office opens we'll check in on whether I'm worrying unnecessarily. And we'll practice tummy time hoping he learns to roll back from his tummy to his back.

Update: I called the pediatrician's office today. The nurse tells me that until he can roll himself back over onto his back at will, we are supposed to use some kind of sleep positioner. So right now he's got tightly rolled receiving blankets strapped to either side of his trunk (using his swaddler) to keep him in place on his back, and we're redoubling rolling efforts during the daytime.

The Doctor is IN (or "I love reading, because it is tasty and delicious!")

Consider this fair warning: you probably should have your Depends in place before you get to the last photo, cause Terry and I pretty much wet ourselves when we saw it.

Liam has a few board books we read to him often, but he also loves to play with this soft book from Dr Seuss called "The Circus McGurkiss 123" that has all sorts of squeaks and rattles and parts that move.

Liam in his corner of the couch "throne" playing with atomic ball and doing a little reading from Circus McGurkiss

Hi there! This is fun!

Oh good joke doctor Seuss! You funny man you.

Hmm, this reading thing is complicated

You are what you eat.

Guh. That is not as tasty as sweet potato.

Happy baby.

And finally, brace yourselves...

The doctor is IN. Now that I've done all that reading, I'm smart like Daddy!

Grammy Mac visits!

Terry's mom Denyse came to visit us for a few days in July. It was wonderful because she actually stayed with us at the house, so we got to monopolize her time. Although she did sleep on a futon on the floor, so maybe not so wonderful for her back. But she was there for Liam's first ever taste of real food (photos and video forthcoming, I swear). And one day she and Terry took Liam downtown to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see some wild cool new exhibits. Terry reports that Liam really grooved on the ones that involved mirros (he's so into himself in the mirror, its hysterical) and crazy colorful lights.

Here's a couple of cute pictures of Liam with his Grandma McDonnell...